Changing Hard Drives

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I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD is a 60
GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I understand
all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking up the
cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software that WD
has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it transfer
everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my personal
files ? and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
operating system ?

I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like to
make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding. Thanks
for your information and help.

Redwagon....
 
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"REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:84357F27-2F58-4B3A-B922-DCCB8FD1C0C5@microsoft.com...
>I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD is a
>60
> GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
> transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I
> understand
> all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking up
> the
> cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software that
> WD
> has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it
> transfer
> everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my personal
> files ?

It would "clone" the old drive, byte-for-byte.

> and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
> operating system ?

No, it would still be on the old drive also. You could theoretically boot
either one using the BIOS to change the boot sequence or else use a boot
manager.

>
> I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like to
> make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding.
> Thanks
> for your information and help.

Once you do the process you will likely have half (60gb) of the new drive
unpartitioned, the software tutorial will guide you through partitioning and
formatting this space for use using Windows Disk Management. You could also
resize the partition using some software, but that probably not be the
wisest course anyway.

Lee
 
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And I'm going to beat this to death.
Copy using the WD program from bootable removable media. REMOVE the
original hard drive. Install the new hard drive as the master.
AFTER you've done this and booted off the new hard drive, you may reinstall
the old hard drive as slave or whatever.
Don't forget the pin configurations for WD include either a master/alone and
master w/slave. Separate pinout options. Not the same things.

It should not be necessary to modify any bios settings for any ide connected
devices. Nor, will I confuse you with a boot manager. You don't sound
ready for that.

wdc.com support offers many insights on use of the copying software you are
referencing. The software, when installed to XP, also offers many help
references. This is the windows version, but not used for cloning a hard
drive containing XP..

"REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:84357F27-2F58-4B3A-B922-DCCB8FD1C0C5@microsoft.com...
> I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD is a
60
> GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
> transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I
understand
> all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking up
the
> cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software that
WD
> has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it
transfer
> everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my personal
> files ? and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
> operating system ?
>
> I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like to
> make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding.
Thanks
> for your information and help.
>
> Redwagon....
>
 
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Hey Lee, I'm not sure what you said about the new drive having half of it's
capacity not being partitioned. After reading the WD software instructions,
one is supposed to format the new drive first, then do the change of
operating system, files etc. Also, they suggest that the old drive should be
defrag'ed and a scandsk completed prior to doing the exchange. Anyway, if one
formats the new drive then I would assume that all of it's capacitry would be
available. Can you explain your comment a little more.

Lil'Dave: Hardware wise, I build around a dozen custom computers each year
for others and although I have asked a "beat-to-death" question regarding
WD's software, please don't assume other things I don't have the smarts for.
I thank you for your suggestions however. By the way, I do understand the
"boot manager". I just have questions about WD's software, O.K. ?

Thanks all.....
Redwagon


"Lil' Dave" wrote:

> And I'm going to beat this to death.
> Copy using the WD program from bootable removable media. REMOVE the
> original hard drive. Install the new hard drive as the master.
> AFTER you've done this and booted off the new hard drive, you may reinstall
> the old hard drive as slave or whatever.
> Don't forget the pin configurations for WD include either a master/alone and
> master w/slave. Separate pinout options. Not the same things.
>
> It should not be necessary to modify any bios settings for any ide connected
> devices. Nor, will I confuse you with a boot manager. You don't sound
> ready for that.
>
> wdc.com support offers many insights on use of the copying software you are
> referencing. The software, when installed to XP, also offers many help
> references. This is the windows version, but not used for cloning a hard
> drive containing XP..
>
> "REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:84357F27-2F58-4B3A-B922-DCCB8FD1C0C5@microsoft.com...
> > I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD is a
> 60
> > GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
> > transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I
> understand
> > all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking up
> the
> > cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software that
> WD
> > has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it
> transfer
> > everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my personal
> > files ? and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
> > operating system ?
> >
> > I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like to
> > make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding.
> Thanks
> > for your information and help.
> >
> > Redwagon....
> >
>
>
>
 
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Unless your current C: drive has a problem, leave it as is and install the
new drive as a data drive, i.e. some drive other than C: will be assigned
when set to slave. You can store data on it and install programs on it.

All my computers have at least two hard drives: one system one or more data.
Data is mostly for backups and file security and storage of extremely large
media files.

If you want to make the 120GB drive the system drive (C:) bite the bullet
and just set it as master (old C: to slave) and do a full Windows and
programs re-install to it. I'd leave the old 60GB drive totally isolated
until the new C: was completely done then hook it up as slave. The old C:
drive will be given a new drive letter. All your data files will still be
present, you can simply delete the windows directory, and then copy all your
data files back to your new C:.

There are certainly more techy solutions, but format and reinstall Windows
has always served me best. Takes time, but hey.....Windows is Windows.

"REDWAGON" wrote:

> I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD is a 60
> GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
> transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I understand
> all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking up the
> cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software that WD
> has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it transfer
> everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my personal
> files ? and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
> operating system ?
>
> I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like to
> make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding. Thanks
> for your information and help.
>
> Redwagon....
>
 

anna

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Apr 17, 2004
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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

> "REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:84357F27-2F58-4B3A-B922-DCCB8FD1C0C5@microsoft.com...
>>I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD is a
>>60 GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
>> transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I
>> understand all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and
>> hooking up >> the cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When
>> using the software that WD has to do this transfer from the old drive to
>> the new one, does it transfer everything including the operating system
>> (XP Home) and all of my personal files ?
>> and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
>> operating system ?


"Lee Chapelle" <no@email.please> wrote in message
news:OEvP4EpiFHA.3288@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> It would "clone" the old drive, byte-for-byte.

> No, it would still be on the old drive also. You could theoretically boot
> either one using the BIOS to change the boot sequence or else use a boot
> manager.

> Once you do the process you will likely have half (60gb) of the new drive
> unpartitioned, the software tutorial will guide you through partitioning
> and formatting this space for use using Windows Disk Management. You could
> also resize the partition using some software, but that probably not be
> the wisest course anyway.
>
> Lee

"Lil' Dave" <spamyourself@virus.net> adds...
> And I'm going to beat this to death.
> Copy using the WD program from bootable removable media. REMOVE the
> original hard drive. Install the new hard drive as the master.
> AFTER you've done this and booted off the new hard drive, you may
> reinstall
> the old hard drive as slave or whatever.
> Don't forget the pin configurations for WD include either a master/alone
> and
> master w/slave. Separate pinout options. Not the same things.


REDWAGON:
The information provided by Lee Chapelle is basically correct in that
whatever data is presently on your source disk (the old disk that you will
be cloning) will remain after the cloning operation. And, as he states, the
new drive will be an exact (for all practical purposes) duplicate of the old
one.

However, his comment re unpartitioned disk space on the destination drive
following the cloning operation needs to be modified. In cloning the
contents of your 60 GB drive to the 120 GB one, the WD program will allow
you to select an option that creates a partition on the destination drive
encompassing its full disk capacity. So unless you've selected an option to
manually resize the destination drive partitions, the 120 GB drive will
contain a single partition that includes its entire disk space. Thus,
(unless you choose otherwise) there will be *no* unallocated space on the
120 GB drive to partition/format following the cloning operation

Lil' Dave's suggestion that you immediately boot to the newly-cloned drive
AFTER disconnecting the old drive is a good one. For one thing, you
obviously want to ensure that the clone "took". And the major disk imaging
companies like Symantec & Acronis recommend this course of action. As a
matter of fact they recommend that only one bootable drive be connected
during normal operations because they see a potential for system files
corruption of one sort or another when two bootable drives are connected.
Frankly, (with a couple of minor exceptions) I've never run into a problem
along those lines but I generally work with two removable drives so that one
of them is ordinarily disconnected except during the cloning (disk imaging)
operation that we routinely use for backup purposes. But it *is* a good idea
that when you *first* boot to your new drive following the cloning
operation, you make sure your old drive has been disconnected.

You haven't said, but possibly you'll be using your old drive as a backup
drive. Now that you've had some experience with "cloning" a drive, you may
want to consider a disk imaging program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or
Acronis True Image for routine cloning of your new working drive for backup
purposes. While in theory you could use the WD utility that you initially
used to clone the contents of the old drive to the new one, its cloning
speed is extremely (painfully!) slow and really not practical for routine
disk imaging for backup purposes.

Actually, for better security it would be best if the backup drive be a
USB/Firewire external hard drive, so you might want to consider installing
your old drive in a USB/Firewire EHD enclosure.
Anna
 
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"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote
> "Lee Chapelle" <no@email.please> wrote

>> Once you do the process you will likely have half (60gb) of the new drive
>> unpartitioned, the software tutorial will guide you through partitioning
>> and formatting this space for use using Windows Disk Management. You
>> could also resize the partition using some software, but that probably
>> not be the wisest course anyway.

> REDWAGON:
> The information provided by Lee Chapelle is basically correct in that
> whatever data is presently on your source disk (the old disk that you will
> be cloning) will remain after the cloning operation. And, as he states,
> the new drive will be an exact (for all practical purposes) duplicate of
> the old one.
>
> However, his comment re unpartitioned disk space on the destination drive
> following the cloning operation needs to be modified. In cloning the
> contents of your 60 GB drive to the 120 GB one, the WD program will allow
> you to select an option that creates a partition on the destination drive
> encompassing its full disk capacity.

Thanks for that Anna, I have never used the WD software so I was not aware
of that function, which is why I said "likely".

> So unless you've selected an option to manually resize the destination
> drive partitions, the 120 GB drive will contain a single partition that
> includes its entire disk space. Thus, (unless you choose otherwise) there
> will be *no* unallocated space on the 120 GB drive to partition/format
> following the cloning operation.

This might be a good spot for a debate on the pros and cons of both options.
I would cast my vote in favour of 2 60GB partitions over one 120GB one, as I
prefer to separate system/storage as much as possible. That way c:\system
partition can be imaged to d:\storage as a quick backup.
 
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"REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D354267F-EB11-4755-8AF4-C85D7414B515@microsoft.com...
> Hey Lee, I'm not sure what you said about the new drive having half of
> it's
> capacity not being partitioned. After reading the WD software
> instructions,
> one is supposed to format the new drive first, then do the change of
> operating system, files etc. Also, they suggest that the old drive should
> be
> defrag'ed and a scandsk completed prior to doing the exchange. Anyway, if
> one
> formats the new drive then I would assume that all of it's capacitry would
> be
> available. Can you explain your comment a little more.

I am accustomed to software that transfers an image of the existing
partition byte-for-byte into unpartitioned free space on the target disk,
which means in the end it would be the same size as the original. In this
case I defer to others who know more about the particulars of WD software.
Good luck..

Lee


>
> Lil'Dave: Hardware wise, I build around a dozen custom computers each year
> for others and although I have asked a "beat-to-death" question regarding
> WD's software, please don't assume other things I don't have the smarts
> for.
> I thank you for your suggestions however. By the way, I do understand the
> "boot manager". I just have questions about WD's software, O.K. ?
>
> Thanks all.....
> Redwagon
>
>
> "Lil' Dave" wrote:
>
>> And I'm going to beat this to death.
>> Copy using the WD program from bootable removable media. REMOVE the
>> original hard drive. Install the new hard drive as the master.
>> AFTER you've done this and booted off the new hard drive, you may
>> reinstall
>> the old hard drive as slave or whatever.
>> Don't forget the pin configurations for WD include either a master/alone
>> and
>> master w/slave. Separate pinout options. Not the same things.
>>
>> It should not be necessary to modify any bios settings for any ide
>> connected
>> devices. Nor, will I confuse you with a boot manager. You don't sound
>> ready for that.
>>
>> wdc.com support offers many insights on use of the copying software you
>> are
>> referencing. The software, when installed to XP, also offers many help
>> references. This is the windows version, but not used for cloning a hard
>> drive containing XP..
>>
>> "REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:84357F27-2F58-4B3A-B922-DCCB8FD1C0C5@microsoft.com...
>> > I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD
>> > is a
>> 60
>> > GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
>> > transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I
>> understand
>> > all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking
>> > up
>> the
>> > cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software
>> > that
>> WD
>> > has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it
>> transfer
>> > everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my
>> > personal
>> > files ? and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
>> > operating system ?
>> >
>> > I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like
>> > to
>> > make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding.
>> Thanks
>> > for your information and help.
>> >
>> > Redwagon....
>> >
>>
>>
>>
 
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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Thanks again everyone for all your comments. Especially Anna's. Your
suggestions and information sounds like you really know the WD software, and
that's really what I was wanting to know. There are, I realize, several
different configurations that be used here and they are all pretty valid in
my opinion. Actually, what I have in mind is to use the new 120GB WD drive as
my primary C:\ root drive, the old 60GB drive as a primary drive for a
completely different computer I am building for a friend, and another 80GB
drive I have for use as the slave drive in conjunction with the new 120Gb
drive.

For anyone else planning on using the WD software to transfer there XP
operating system to a new drive, I really suggest they read the comments in
this post. I have really benefited by all your comments and thanks again. And
Anna, thanks especially to you. After I finish all my chores, I will
hopefully get back to another post and comment on all I did and found out.

Cheers all.
Redwagon........


"Doug Glass" wrote:

> Unless your current C: drive has a problem, leave it as is and install the
> new drive as a data drive, i.e. some drive other than C: will be assigned
> when set to slave. You can store data on it and install programs on it.
>
> All my computers have at least two hard drives: one system one or more data.
> Data is mostly for backups and file security and storage of extremely large
> media files.
>
> If you want to make the 120GB drive the system drive (C:) bite the bullet
> and just set it as master (old C: to slave) and do a full Windows and
> programs re-install to it. I'd leave the old 60GB drive totally isolated
> until the new C: was completely done then hook it up as slave. The old C:
> drive will be given a new drive letter. All your data files will still be
> present, you can simply delete the windows directory, and then copy all your
> data files back to your new C:.
>
> There are certainly more techy solutions, but format and reinstall Windows
> has always served me best. Takes time, but hey.....Windows is Windows.
>
> "REDWAGON" wrote:
>
> > I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD is a 60
> > GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option to
> > transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I understand
> > all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking up the
> > cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software that WD
> > has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it transfer
> > everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my personal
> > files ? and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the old
> > operating system ?
> >
> > I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like to
> > make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding. Thanks
> > for your information and help.
> >
> > Redwagon....
> >
 
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"REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D354267F-EB11-4755-8AF4-C85D7414B515@microsoft.com...
> Hey Lee, I'm not sure what you said about the new drive having half of
it's
> capacity not being partitioned. After reading the WD software
instructions,
> one is supposed to format the new drive first, then do the change of
> operating system, files etc. Also, they suggest that the old drive should
be
> defrag'ed and a scandsk completed prior to doing the exchange. Anyway, if
one
> formats the new drive then I would assume that all of it's capacitry would
be
> available. Can you explain your comment a little more.
>
> Lil'Dave: Hardware wise, I build around a dozen custom computers each year
> for others and although I have asked a "beat-to-death" question regarding
> WD's software, please don't assume other things I don't have the smarts
for.
> I thank you for your suggestions however. By the way, I do understand the
> "boot manager". I just have questions about WD's software, O.K. ?
>
> Thanks all.....
> Redwagon
>
>
> "Lil' Dave" wrote:
>
> > And I'm going to beat this to death.
> > Copy using the WD program from bootable removable media. REMOVE the
> > original hard drive. Install the new hard drive as the master.
> > AFTER you've done this and booted off the new hard drive, you may
reinstall
> > the old hard drive as slave or whatever.
> > Don't forget the pin configurations for WD include either a master/alone
and
> > master w/slave. Separate pinout options. Not the same things.
> >
> > It should not be necessary to modify any bios settings for any ide
connected
> > devices. Nor, will I confuse you with a boot manager. You don't sound
> > ready for that.
> >
> > wdc.com support offers many insights on use of the copying software you
are
> > referencing. The software, when installed to XP, also offers many help
> > references. This is the windows version, but not used for cloning a
hard
> > drive containing XP..
> >
> > "REDWAGON" <REDWAGON@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:84357F27-2F58-4B3A-B922-DCCB8FD1C0C5@microsoft.com...
> > > I Just purchased a new (retail) Western Digital 120GB HD. Existing HD
is a
> > 60
> > > GB drive. The software that came with the new HD indicates an option
to
> > > transfer all of the system from the old drive to the new drive. I
> > understand
> > > all of the pin settings required when doing this transfer and hooking
up
> > the
> > > cables correctly, no problem. My question is: When using the software
that
> > WD
> > > has to do this transfer from the old drive to the new one, does it
> > transfer
> > > everything including the operating system (XP Home) and all of my
personal
> > > files ? and after the transfer, is the old drive void of any of the
old
> > > operating system ?
> > >
> > > I know this subject has been beaten to death by others but would like
to
> > > make sure everything goes the way I expect it will before proceeding.
> > Thanks
> > > for your information and help.
> > >
> > > Redwagon....
> > >
> >
> >
> >

You got it backwards.
Forgive me for NOT assuming you were familiar with something, rather than
assuming.
I can't win either way, don't assume or assume, not knowing the person on
the other end. Can I?

You may have to open the repair console after the clone and rebooting to the
new drive. Repair the boot sector.

Since assuming is allowed, I'll go further. Imaging and restoring that
image to the new drive is faster, safer, and more dependable. You have to
use imaging software that works with XP. As opposed to free cloning
software you've chosen.